O God, thy Sea is so great and my boat so small

 

September 2, 2022, Jacobson’s Marina Resort, Frankfort Michigan, well everything they say about the big winds blowing on Lake Michigan has certainly proven accurate. We were stuck in Charlevoix for 4 days and are now hunkered down in Frankfort for at least another night. We had planned on one night here and were planning to travel today and it will be at least 2 maybe nights 3 before we move again.

 

We started the week in Mackinac Island and yesterday (Thursday) arrived at Jacobson’s, and we only traveled 4 days out of the past 8 days. Lot of down time boat cleaning, laundry and reading.  Below is a recap of our week.  

 

August 27, Travel Day #48, Mackinac Island to Petoskey: Total Distance Traveled: 50 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 6.5 Hours. We had a wonderful time on Mackinac Island, but it was time to head south and enter Lake Michigan. Mackinac Island is on Lake Huron. I received a bunch of positive feedback on the pictures of The Grand Hotel so I will include some more pictures of the hotel at the end of this weeks post. We had a 50-mile day (which is a long day for us) and the wind was forecasted to be only 5 knots with gusts to 10 knots, the waves (which is the important consideration) were forecasted 1-2 feet every 3 seconds, not bad but any worst and it would be uncomfortable. The big difference for us ocean folks, is not the height of the waves (well yes big waves are bad) but how close the waves are to each other, and they measure that by how many seconds apart they are. If the waves are 4-5 seconds, it’s not bad 3 starts to get choppy and 2 and under is terrible. On these big lakes the waves have nowhere to go so they hit the banks and just return to the lake. So paying attention to the wave separation is new to us, but very important.

Our main plan was to get to Petoskey (50 miles), Plan B was we could bail out and go into Mackinac City which was only 18 miles away.    Off we went at 8 AM and headed West for 25 miles and then we would turn Due South for another 25 miles. The first leg was fine as the winds were blowing from the Southwest, so we slide by Mackinac City and stuck with Plan A. As soon as we went by the lighthouse our turning mark and headed south, we had 3 hours of a slog fest. The winds were guesting over 15 knots from the south right on the nose and the waves were coming on our forward quarter every 2 seconds and were more like 3-4 footers! Another day there would be no lunch while traveling or going below except for bathroom breaks. We normally cruise at 6-7 knots but picked up the pace and cruised at 8 knots to try and shorten the trip by a half hour which we did.

We got into Petoskey right after 2 PM and then had lunch and cleaned up the boat, it was 3 :30 by the time we were settled in. Petoskey was a nice little town, which was located just 2 blocks from the Marina and so we walked around and played tourist. When we returned to the boat we ran into Salty Dogs and asked how there week was and Ron said, “I must sit down and explain our week”. We have traveled with Salty Dogs a few days, I’ve mentioned them before in the blog, nice folks, and we last saw them on Mackinac Island a few days ago. Turns out while biking on the Island Pam fell off her bike and broke her ankle in two places. UGH!  Horse drawn ambulance to the Ferry, ferry ride to the mainland, Ambulance ride to Petoskey hospital Thursday night. Now Ron is at Mackinac on the boat with two dogs and must get up Friday morning in the pouring rain and take the boat to Petoskey alone, the same 50-mile trip we had just done that day. The good news in the rain there was no wind or waves, so he had smooth sailing. He arrived at the hospital at 4 pm and Pam had surgery at 6 PM and was just back on the boat that afternoon. Ron was taking a bus the next morning to Traverse City where he had arranged a one-way rental and on Tuesday they were driving home to IDAHO! Pam is “non weight bearing” for 4 weeks. Ron is coming back with his son in two weeks and going to get the boat below Chicago by October first. What a shame, we have emailed with them, and they seem in good spirits but are bummed, which is understandable. We have been very careful on our bikes since then! Not many pictures from this day’s cruise.

We had dinner on the boat and early to bed as we had a short run in the morning to Charlevoix and wanted to get there before lunch and enjoy Charlevoix.  

Track

 

This was not a picture day but here is one 

 

August 28, Travel Day #49, Petoskey to Charlevoix MI: Total Distance Traveled: 18 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 3 Hours. We departed just after 8 AM and were in Charlevoix by 11 AM. It was a smooth ride over and they were not forecasting big waves or winds on Sunday, but it was forecasting big winds for the next few days, so we wanted to get here early.  So, an easy run that morning smooth sailing all the way. Very pretty shoreline mostly in state parks very little development in this section of Michigan. Charlevoix is a wonderful city and is on the Loopers must stops and it did not disappoint. We had a great time there and as I mentioned we planned to spend two night and ended up staying 4 days.

Charlevoix is a summer community much like Kennebunk Kennebunkport. Population triples in the summer and it’s a popular vacation destination for folks from Chicago. I’ll show pictures of the house located on the high bluffs that overlook Lake Charlevoix. Really a fine community. Al Capone spent time here (every town seems to have a famous resident) and a builder named Earl Young who was famous for building “Mushroom Homes”, very cool structures. We went for a bike ride and found about 10 of them. Pictures below. The last night we had a fabulous dinner at a restaurant called Grey Gables and it was outstanding. There were about 12 Loop boats at the marina for this extended weather delay as no one could move due to high winds. We had Docktails (the first time I organized one, probable won’t be the last time) on the second night which gave us all a chance to meet everyone. So, we had a wonderful time in Charlevoix but after 4 days it’s time to move on and so we had an early night and off the next morning as it looked like a good travel day low waves and low wind.

 Track

 

Draw Bridge entering the harbor

Mushroom Houses

Ok you get the point, pretty cool construction

Now theses are the houses up on the bluff that look onto Lake Charlevoix

Now here are two houses on the lake amazing boat houses as well

September 1, 2022, Travel Day #50, Charlevoix to Frankfort MI: Total Distance Traveled: 70 Miles, Total Time Traveled: 8 Hours. The main street in town has a draw bridge that opens every ½ hour on the hour and half hour, so your arrival and departure must be scheduled around the bridge openings. We had another long day Thursday and once again had planned to buddy boat with Dan and Cheri on Cheri Baby 2 to Frankfort. So, we were up and on our way at 6:45 and sunrise was 7:01 so it was light but I’m not a fan of leaving before sunrise. Well, we were not the only ones with that plan as there must have been a dozen boats all circling for the 7 AM bridge.  The first few hours of the trip was very smooth sailing as the waves were less than 2 feet and spaced out and very little wind. By 10 AM the wind started to pick up and we had mostly a southern route planned which is pretty much the case for the rest of the trip down Lake Michigan. Going forward we will be going into the prevailing winds which isn’t bad unless it’s over 15 knots. It’s easier to go right into the wind rather than have it on the beam (side). By noon the waves and the distance between them picked up and the last few hours was a bit rougher. We cruised at 9 knots so we could get into Frankfort a bit earlier.

We went by the Sleeping Dunes National Lakeshore, which was beautiful, and I will post several pictures of them. The lake is very clean, my pictures don’t do it justice, but the water is so blue it's almost almost tropical in shallow waters, this is really an amazing body of water. We went thru several spots that were 600 feet deep on our depth finder.

 Track

Sleeping Dunes National Lakeshore

Lighthouse at the mouth of the Frankfort Harbor

Sunset Last Night

We are planning to come back to Maine to close the house up in late September and we have made reservations at a marina 75 miles and 4 locks south of Chicago. The marina is a two long day run total of 18 hours. So, we are trying to fly home around the 20th therefore we need to be thru Chicago by the 16-17th which gives us two weeks to get there. That is doable as its maybe 10 days travel and we can do it in 8 if we go 60 miles a day instead of 35. However, these wind delays are problematic. One though is we cross Lake Michigan Monday morning which looks like a good travel day, and its just over 50 miles from Frankfort to Algoma Wisconsin but its all-open BIG water. No place to hide once you start. The advantage of being on the Wisconsin side we would be more protected from Westerly winds but still struggle with the Southern winds.

 

So tomorrow we put our thinking caps on and see which is our best route. Bottom line if we must spend another week getting to Chicago, the house can wait!

 

Can’t believe that it's Labor Day weekend, be safe and fair winds!

Just a few (more) pictures of The Grand Hotel